MoWC to Celebrate Labor Day With Sesame Street???s Walkaround Julia
Festivities Will Include Free Memory Bank Registration and ???Leavers Lace??? Exhibit Opening
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WOONSOCKET, R.I. ??? ??On Monday, September 3, the Museum of Work & Culture ??? along with Rhode Island PBS ??? will welcome a costumed walkaround version of Julia, a new friend from Sesame Street! A sweet and curious four-year-old girl with autism, Julia made her onscreen debut in April 2017. The event will take place during the MoWC???s free annual Labor Day Open House.
The MoWC is offering families the opportunity to visit, interact, and have their photo taken with Walkaround Julia. Three meet-and-greet sessions will take place at 10 am, 11 am, and 12 pm.
All participating families will also receive copies of We’re Amazing, 1, 2, 3!, a storybook featuring Julia and friends.
Space is limited to 30 family groups per meet-and-greet session; each group can include up to two adults and four children. Registration is required and is first come, first served. Families can register at LaborDayMoWC.org.
While the MoWC does offer award-winning low-sensory programming for visitors on the spectrum, the Labor Day Open House will not be a low-sensory environment. However, tools and services ??? including color communication badges, hands-on activities, and trained staff from the Rhode Island Consortium for Autism Research and Treatment ??? will be available to visitors.
In addition to Walkaround Julia???s visit, at 1:30 and 3pm artist Steve Mason will be presenting gallery talks on his new exhibit Leavers Lace, featuring photographs of the last lace manufacturer in America.
Leavers Lace is located in West Greenwich, Rhode Island and makes some of the best lace in the world, including lace for Kate Middleton???s wedding dress. Mason???s work documents the people and machinery that create these delicate textiles.
The day???s programming will also include free registrations for The Mill Memory Bank, a digital registry of profiles of former mill workers. Attendees will have the opportunity to register their loved ones??? stories and permanently recognize their contributions to Rhode Island???s proud manufacturing heritage.
This visit by Walkaround Julia is made possible by Rhode Island PBS and CVS Health Charity Classic. The Open House is made possible by the Rhode Island Labor History Society.
About the Museum of Work & Culture
The interactive and educational Museum of Work & Culture shares the stories of the men, women, and children who came to find a better life in Rhode Island???s mill towns in the late 19th- and 20th centuries. It recently received a Rhode Island Monthly Best of Rhode Island Award for its SensAbilities Saturdays all-ability program.
About the Rhode Island Historical Society
Founded in 1822, the RIHS, a Smithsonian Affiliate, is the fourth-oldest historical society in the United States and is Rhode Island???s largest and oldest historical organization. In Providence, the RIHS owns and operates the John Brown House Museum, a designated National Historic Landmark, built in 1788; the Aldrich House, built in 1822 and used for administration and public programs; and the Mary Elizabeth Robinson Research Center, where archival, book and image collections are housed. In Woonsocket, the RIHS manages the Museum of Work and Culture, a community museum examining the industrial history of northern Rhode Island and of the workers and settlers, especially French-Canadians, who made it one of the state???s most distinctive areas.